Meet Abel & Cole the Online Organic Supermarket

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by

James Walters
in

Here we look at Abel & Cole an online organic supermarket to help you live climate positive, and that I’ve personally used for many years. This is part of our Company Directory to Help Climate Change by Growing, Eating, and Living Sustainably, and part of our series on Eating Sustainably.

Since 1988, Abel & Cole believed that food has the power to save the world. They’re on a mission to make shopping sustainably simple, putting people and our planet first every step of the way.

Abel & Cole want to provide easy ways to help the planet. That’s why they put in all the hard work behind the scenes, from sourcing the finest, organic food to reducing unnecessary packaging, so all you have to do is choose your sustainable, weekly shop. From supporting independent growers and makers to cutting carbon emissions, every organic box that lands on your doorstep makes a world of difference. Combating climate change is no small feat, and their work will never be done. But together, we really can make big changes feel bite-sized.

Let’s find out more.

Abel & Cole delivers organic vegetables, meat, fish, and groceries throughout the UK. Known for their reliable delivery service, their business processes cover sustainable and environmentally-friendly practices.

Every company has a glaring website explaining all the things that make them ‘unique’, things that are supposed to attract you. Most times, they fall short of expectations. Not Abel & Cole.

Source: www.abelandcole.co.uk

Abel & Cole: Mission

One of Abel & Coles’ missions is to drive positive change in their community. This transcends providing quality products and services to their customers and giving to charity. The B-corp certified company holds its workers close to their heart as well.

Abel & Cole is a living wage accredited employer, which means they pay well-above the national minimum wage. The living wage is calculated as the minimum income that’s high enough to maintain a normal standard of living. That means, workers at Abel & Cole get reputable and sustainable pay.

The company is also committed to equal gender pay for their workers, pledges to support the Mental Health at Work Commitment, and integrates equality, inclusivity, and anti-racism in its workplace.

With Abel & Cole, you can be assured that you’ll get organic & pesticide-free food with the added option of pasture-fed meat. Animals fed on pasture are less stressed, live longer, more fertile, and some studies are finding pasture-fed meat to be higher in certain nutrients, contrary to those kept in factory farm conditions. This also improves land use, manure and nutrient management and soil health, thus helping combat climate change.

Most of Their Food is Grown in the UK

Abel & Cole prides itself in delivering fresh organic produce of the highest quality to each of their customers. A quick look at their reviews on Trustpilot will reveal they do just that. 

Source: https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/startmyshop

They have a group of independent growers that implement all the organic processes in producing food–for both plants and animals–to ensure highest quality standards. Even when they can’t produce it right here in the UK, they have environmentally-friendly practices in place to source organic goods.

For example, their organic bananas aren’t grown in the UK, so they have to be imported. Instead of flying in produce, Abel & Cole promise to always opt for road and sea transport. Why? Because air freight burns way more energy and causes more pollution than ships and trucks. They’ve kept this promise for more than three decades.

A Step Towards Sustainability

Abel & Cole has constantly worked on its mission since 1988 and streamlined their shopping & delivery process to save as much energy as they can. Here are some ways that they’re helping: 

  • You can choose a customised Fruit & Veg box along with healthy add-ons like organic food, drinks, etc.
  • They always deliver organic produce
  • You can change your Fruit & Veg Box with seasonal swaps
  • Organic growing supports 30% more species of wildlife on average
  • Up to 77% less plastic in packaging, 30% more species of wildlife used
  • Carbon-neutral deliveries with zero air-freight
  • Over 65 million plastic bags saved so far

Carbon-neutral Delivery Practices

While most companies promise same-day delivery of orders, Abel & Cole takes a different, more sustainable approach. You see, every time a vehicle hits the road, pollution gets released into the atmosphere, harming the earth.

To curb that practice, Abel & Cole developed a strategy that satisfies their customers and our future by helping climate change. Deliveries at Abel & Cole are scheduled by region every week, meaning customers get one delivery per week on a set day per region, through a route that keeps the miles to a minimum.

They also use bigger vans for deliveries, so they can make more deliveries in a single journey without having to make return trips. This strategy means your orders will arrive within a week, which is good when you consider the amount of carbon emissions they avoid each day. It’s also worth noting the weekly minimum order value is only £10 so you don’t have to order many items to get a home delivery, which is different to other services such as Ocado that has a £40 minimum order value.

When a van reaches the end of its life cycle, Abel & Cole repurpose the body and direct it towards manufacturing another vehicle.

Helping Customers Re-use Packaging

Abel & Cole helps you slim your bin with their packaging promise.

The energy required to manufacture and dispose plastics is not sustainable, especially when there are better alternatives that don’t have negative effects on the earth. That’s why Abel & Cole use returnable cardboard boxes that are reused for each delivery.

Cardboard boxes are safe to manufacture and dispose, as well as recycle. This practice has saved them over 65 million plastic bags since 1988. Partnering with some organisations like Unpackaged and ReLondon, they’ve started collecting hard-to-recycle plastics from home via their doorstep recycling scheme called Plastic Pick-Up.

There’s a lot of information on their website on ways to recycle other packaging materials. For example, box twine for knitting, egg boxes for growing seeds, and plastic bags for bin bags.

Handling Waste in an Environmentally-friendly Way

One way to live sustainably is to create as little waste as possible. For a national food company, Abel & Cole manages to do that quite efficiently.

Because they work in tandem with the local farmers that produce the food they sell, they ensure it’s of the very highest quality, right from the farm. Higher quality equals longer shelf life. However, nothing lasts forever, especially food. When their products go bad, they use it as a source of energy for their delivery vans.

Since 2020, Abel & Cole has had vans that run on CNG (Compressed Natural Gas), which is a form of food waste. Instead of dumping expired food in landfills, it’s more sustainable to burn it for energy. Only food unfit for consumption gets used as CNG. The rest goes to charity.

Every time a Fruit & Veg Box is purchased, one portion of fresh, organic fruit is donated to those in need, as part of their ‘One Box: One Portion’ campaign to combat food poverty in the community.

Source: www.abelandcole.co.uk/ContentPage?folder=AboutUs&file=sustainability-hub.htm

Cautious of Their Carbon Footprint

The first step to fighting climate change is reducing your carbon emissions. And, once again, Abel & Cole play their part.

As a Carbon Neutral-certified company, they have teams monitoring the effects of their work processes to estimate how much carbon they release into the atmosphere. And, they’ve got strategies in place to offset any imbalance. One way they’ve managed to do this is to use renewable energy at all their sites.

This is all part of their approach to being an organisation that makes purpose-driven decisions: They want to provide easy ways to help the planet, support independent growers and makers, fight climate change, and drive positive change back to their community.

The company aims to cut their carbon emissions in half by 2030 (in line with the UN warning that global emissions have to be reduced by at least 45% by 2030 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change). With the strategies they’ve Implemented so far, they’re well on their way to reaching their goal.

They also work closely with charities like City Harvest and The Felix Project to ensure any excess food that they cannot sell finds a home. Abel & Cole continue to work on a comprehensive, long-term strategy to reduce emissions and give back to Mother Earth, at the same time as providing us with tasty food that plays its part in helping to improve our own health and happiness.

You Have the Power To Make Change Happen

Making conscious buying decisions is one way that you have the power to improve your own health and happiness and the health and happiness of future generations. Why not join this ethical family of fellow B Corps & Fairtrade-certified growers and make your contribution towards a better future?

Here Is What You Can Do

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Production Notes

This was produced by me, James Walters, as a personal project to help stop climate change by inspiring others to grow, eat, and live sustainably.

Any advice given is the opinion of those involved and does not constitute medical, financial, or legal advice.

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